IT'S THE biggest battle to hit the high street since, well, the fight to get to the front of the queue at the 5am opening of every Next sale.

This May sees the launch of not one but two celebrity high street ranges, as Kate Moss unveils her much-hyped range for Topshop and Lily Allen designs a set of clothes for New Look.

But whose style - if either - will shoppers be buying into?

As competitors go, the two couldn't be any more different. Although both are constantly labelled as innovative, unique and distinct, Lily favours a more 1950s prom queen look, all puff ball dresses and pumps, while Kate single handedly made skinny jeans all the rage, her rock chick grunge look winning her top honours in every style poll going.

Already the rivalry between the two ladies is hotting up, with Lily letting us know exactly what she thinks of Kate's new range.

'I like what New Look are doing and what they are about,' the singer said. 'They have responsible role models like me and Drew Barrymore [the 'face' of New Look's new range from Giles Deacon] and they're very conscious of having positive body images and promoting positive body images and promoting positive women.

'Unlike Kate Moss and that billionaire [TopShop owner Sir Philip Green] who's thrown a load of money at her so we can get to see what her wardrobe is like. It's madness.'

Is Lily getting nervous that her range might flop next to the designs of Kate 'anything I touch turns to gold' Moss? Who would blame her when companies such as Burberry credit pictures of her holding their Manor handbag as one of the reasons their profits are so high this year.

Or maybe she's realised that the public are getting sick and tired of celebrity-designed ranges launching on the high street every week.

Take Madonna's M range for H&M, unveiled last Thursday. Expect hordes of extra shoppers fighting in the aisles over the queen of pop's designs, we were warned. Yet in Cardiff, just nine customers were waiting outside for the store to open. Even in London's Oxford Street branch, where the collection was being officially launched, only around 50 shoppers turned up. Hardly the hysterical frenzy it was billed to be. As WM went to press yesterday the clothes were still readily available in Welsh branches of the chain.

Likewise Giles Deacon's range for New Look. So he's a designer, rather than a celebrity, but the windows of New Look are still sporting his polka dot peach and black dresses, desperately trying to entice shoppers, two weeks after it first went on sale.

'Everywhere you go some celebrity has designed this or that,' says Jane Davies, the designer responsible for the Welsh flag dresses that were all the rage a few years ago. 'A lot of people are doing it now. And at the end of the day they often don't design it themselves, they are just the name on it.'

Bethan Morris, senior lecturer in fashion at the University of Wales, Newport, agrees. But, she says, at least ranges such as Giles Deacon's have the advantage of being created by someone who is trained in fashion design.

'Fashion designers who have created ranges are always going to be more desirable than celebrities,' she says. 'Celebrities inevitably have stylists so it's not always their own style. Fashion designers are trained and work in the industry every day.'

As Lauretta Roberts, editor of the fashion industry magazine Drapers, points out, 'The collections that have previously caused hysteria at H&M have been produced by true fashion designers, who are qualified to design clothes and who have built credible businesses and reputations doing so, and not just 'celebrities'.

'Most people ordinarily wouldn't be able to afford something by Stella McCartney so they literally jump at the chance to buy her clothes when they come with a high street price tag. And I can understand that.'

Indeed Stella's range did cause chaotic scenes, with garments flying off the shelves, and some savvy shoppers making hundreds on internet auction site eBay.

However, the problem with celebrity lines is that, other than looking like said star, it isn't always clear what the customer will get out of buying their designs.

The reason people such as Kate Moss, and even Lily Allen make it to the top of style polls is because they're so individual in the way they dress. They don't look as though they have a team of stylists over-grooming them to perfection. They create trends, rather than copying them, refusing to follow fashion to the letter. They throw together outfits so effortlessly, matching together things that really shouldn't go (pumps and ball dresses, for a start), thus starting trends, rather than following them.

Says Lauretta, 'Do they somehow think some of Madonna's magic will rub off if they wear one of her belts?'

The fact is, though, no matter how hard you try, you're never going to look like the star in question. With giant billboards and television adverts featuring Madonna wearing her clothes, Kate Moss pictured in Vogue wearing her new range, and Giles Deacon's dress worn by Drew Barrymore in New Look windows, the danger is that everyone will know whose designs you're wearing. 'Oh look,' they'll chorus. 'That girl's wearing the Madonna/ Lily/ Kate dress that cost [insert price here] from [name of shop]. Does she think she's Madonna/ Lily/ Kate? She doesn't look anywhere as good.'

You're hardly going to be seen as original.

'Madonna has got a unique style,' says Jane. 'She's different, she doesn't follow fashion and has her own personal style. And for Kate Moss that's her job, she knows how to do it.'

Copying them, therefore, by buying their designs just makes you look even more unoriginal than if you subtly based your wardrobe around the way they dress.

It's rather similar to when Kate Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend, was pictured wearing a printed floral dress from TopShop.

It sold out in stores across the country - but more than one fashionista who had purchased the dress before Kate was pictured wearing it told WM they had relegated the dress to the back of their wardrobe because they couldn't bear the thought of looking the same as everyone else, or worse, people thinking they had bought it to look like Kate.

'People see celebrities as role models,' says Jane. 'We are living their lives - everybody thinks they know what is going on in people's lives. People buy into the brand and their life.

'But these ranges are aimed at a certain person, a certain age group.

'Personally I can't understand it. It's like the Victoria Beckham jeans that cost #200. At the end of the day they're just a bog standard pair of jeans.'